The view from the audience at the Globe Theater, London, ENGLAND. Photo by Charitina Goebel.
Happy late Halloween University of Montevallians. I hope you all had a great holiday, ate plenty of candy and scared lots of children. The weird thing about Halloween in England is that it’s not nearly as celebrated here as it is in America. There are more people going to clubs dressed in a costume rather than regular clothing but the decorations, candy and trick-or-treating children are somewhat lacking.
Many of the university students actually celebrated Halloween on Oct. 30. My entire flat celebrated Halloween with a game of costume beer pong and a game of “Slender.”
What’s crazy to me is that almost every British person I have met has never had pumpkin pie. To me, this seems so wrong. They aren’t really big on pumpkin anything here. I felt somewhat homesick what with the lack of pumpkin themed foods.
To get off the subject of things dealing with Halloween and autumn, I want to tell you about my trip to Brighton Pier. The weather was not the best for this seaside excursion but it was still loads of fun. The trip was included with the ISA program so I spent my time exploring with my American friends.
The pier has a huge game room/casino on it along with some rides. I did not spend my time in the game room nor on any of the rides. What’s sad to say is that I spent a lot of my time in a milkshake shop called Moo Moo’s.
I had the most mouthwatering banoffee pie milkshake in my life, granted it was my first banoffee pie milkshake ever. The point is that it reminded me of Montevallo and the wonderful milkshakes from Eclipse.
Me, being a purple, felt so at home in the milkshake shop because it was so cowed out. There was a cow on the ceiling, the tables were cow themed and the cups had cows on them. I thought, “What a perfect place this shop would be for the purples of UM.”
The other place I went with my ISA group was to the Globe Theatre, where I saw Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.” I had an authentic experience, meaning that I stood for the three hour duration of the play. The building has a round shape and an open roof with growing moss. Stepping into the Globe was like stepping into a different world
Halloween has left me mildly homesick. I did not come across any decorated houses which saddened me
Adjusting to English Education:
I wanted to explain the mind blowing grading system that is British education. So, I am one to never like 70 percent grades because they are mediocre and don’t look as good on transcripts as 80s or 90s. However, in the UK, 70 percentages are top marks. They are As.
This may sound like it means the system is easier, but that is not the case. The percentage is lower but considered a higher mark because the grading is tougher. The professors find it amazing when a student makes a 70 or over in their class.
Finding out this information has made me more nervous about my assignments and more baffled. I am so unsure what my grades on assignments are in equivalence to what my overall grade in the end is because of the huge difference in the ranking system. I also hope that the proper grades to Montevallo standards are given to me when I come back this spring. I was told it shouldn’t be a problem.
